There are a variety of automatic weapons available but most are high caliber and thus, require bulky heavy cartridges to be available for any extended use. There appears to be a need for a lower caliber weapon that is potentially lethal at close range but would be less likely to injure a bystander than high caliber weapons. For commercial success there is also a need for a design suitable for low cost manufacture. The subject invention is suitable for use with 22 caliber long rifle cartridges, thus reducing the ammunition weight for in-use time when compared to high caliber weapons. Further, in the present invention the cartridges may be held in a belt that is as lightweight as masking tape. Ammunition may be fired without removal from the belt with the cartridge cases being held in the belt after firing. This is accomplished by having two pivotal members form a chamber and lock in place to perfectly align a cartridge with a barrel as a cartridge is fed between the two pivotal members and locked in place by a locker-ejector member before firing and that opens the two pivotal members and simultaneously raises the spent cartridge which is still in the belt for ejection from the unit after the cartridge is fired. Although multiple parts are used in the invention, most of the parts are 1/8" or less thick and may be stamped rather than machined, this should lead to lower manufacturing cost.
We have considered the following patents in this general field:
______________________________________ Ser. No. Date ______________________________________ 4,653,356 3/31/1987 4,004,491 1/25/1977 4,342,253 8/3/1982 3,782,242 1/1/1974 3,706,259 12/19/1972 3,706,260 12/19/1972 3,429,220 2/25/1969 3,380,345 4/30/1968 3,046,842 7/31/1962 2,970,521 2/7/1961 1,329,903 2/3/1920 1,307,316 6/17/1919 36,836 11/14/1862 2,317,579 4/27/1943 ______________________________________
The subject invention appears to be uniquely different in several aspects among which are method of forming and locking cartridges in a holding chamber, a minimum distance horizontal travel for an automatic cocking mechanism, and use of a belt to hold the cartridges during firing and to hold spent cartridges thereafter.